Morning woods, Beech Hill.
I’m starting to question my ovenbird ID yesterday. When Jack and I got out of the truck at Beech Hill first thing this morning, I heard a warbler calling loudly from the same place as yesterday’s supposed ovenbird—but this was clearly a common yellowthroat. I did describe yesterday’s bird as having an odd, abbreviated call; and, sure enough, this yellowthroat had an odd abbreviated call, too. Instead of witchety, witchety, it sang something like witchy-witchy.
Sort of like an ovenbird.
Brown thrasher.
That was the only ovenbird-like song I heard today, so it got me wondering. However, I did spot what looked like an ovenbird in the undergrowth coming down the lower wooded trail yesterday morning, so I’m not gonna adjust that list. And today, descending the same trail, I heard prolonged chittering calls like ovenbirds chasing each other in spring. I won’t list them today—although I kind of think that’s what they were.
But what a day, today. Cool—in the 60s (F)—sunny in the morning, with something of a little breeze. About half-way to the summit, emerging from some thick greenery, I saw a catbird up ahead maybe 50 feet. It’d seen us, too, and was sounding the alarm. Then suddenly a big bird flew out of some foliage to the left and swept up and then down the hill to the right. A buteo of some kind. It looked like a young red-tailed or red-shouldered. I only saw it for about a second and a half and couldn’t confirm an ID.
Northern flicker on Beech Nut.
Soon after, I heard the insistent call of a black-billed cuckoo coming from up the hill. And turning into the first of the open fields, I spotted the brown thrasher in the same place it popped up yesterday—in some dead snags near an apple tree. In fact, a group of sparrows and towhees were also perched in the same tree. I managed a couple photos.
One odd sighting at the summit: a flicker clinging to a rock column at Beech Nut. That was weird. Plenty of phoebes again. All three primary flycatchers, in fact: phoebe, alder, pewee. And all five sparrows again—although the white-throat didn’t sing until our return.
Gray catbird.
I learned something else today: American woodcocks nested very near the Beech Hill Road parking lot. I recall flushing a woodcock a couple times in the wet area just around the curve from there in spring. And in the past couple weeks, I’ve flushed one of the birds at least three times in exactly the same place just across the trail from the original, um, flushing. If it happens tomorrow, I’ll stick around and hunt for chicks.
Finally, I just want to say this: I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll hear two of my favorite bird songs at one particular GPS location, at about 8 or 8:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. Hermit thrush and eastern wood-pewee. I’ve heard both about the same time of day—for the past week, I bet—at the same point along the lower wooded trail.
Absolute candy for the ears.
* * *
This afternoon, driving back from town, I caught sight of a mockingbird near a busy Route 1 intersection, grabbing some morsel from a patch of grass near the curb and at once flapping away up the hill. That makes three mimics I listed today: catbird, thrasher, mockingbird.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7 a.m., I walked all trails.
1. Red-eyed vireo (voice)
2. Common yellowthroat
3. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
4. Chestnut-sided warbler
5. American crow (voice)
6. Gray catbird
7. American goldfinch (voice)
8. Eastern towhee
9. Cedar waxwing
10. American robin (voice)
11. Veery (voice)
12. Unidentified buteo
13. Black-billed cuckoo (voice)
14. Alder flycatcher (voice)
15. Song sparrow
16. Field sparrow
17. Brown thrasher
18. Northern flicker
19. Eastern phoebe
20. Savannah sparrow
21. Herring gull
22. Hermit thrush (voice)
23. Yellow warbler (voice)
24. Blue jay (voice)
25. Chipping sparrow (voice)
26. White-throated sparrow (voice)
27. Northern cardinal
28. Tufted titmouse (voice)
29. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
30. American woodcock
31. Black-throated green warbler (voice)
32. Eastern wood-pewee (voice)
33. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
Elsewhere
34. Northern mockingbird
Mushroom.
Tags: alder flycatcher, American crow, American goldfinch, American robin, American woodcock, black-billed cuckoo, black-capped chickadee, black-throated green warbler, blue jay, brown thrasher, Cedar waxwing, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, eastern wood-pewee, field sparrow, gray catbird, hairy woodpecker, hermit thrush, herring gull, northern cardinal, northern flicker, red-eyed vireo, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse, unidentified buteo, veery, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow, yellow warbler
